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his waiting fiancée. The cyclist’s final, drunken journey is a tour de force of disorientation not entirely dissimilar to that of Fellini’s subsequent “Toby Dam­ mit” segment of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD. Unfortunately, “A Drop Too Much” is not offered in its original version on this re­ lease; appearing here is an American rendition which was apparently intended as a high- school drivers education film! While Pojar’s film was made without dialogue or recorded narration of any kind, here an English-speaking voice intro­ duces us to the cyclist—now a “fine fellow” by the name of “Bill Williams” who stops off for a “soda pop” during his travels, but allows himself to get carried away by a wedding celebration. A vi­ sual alteration is provided when a Czech-language sign warning “Don’t Mix Drinking and Driving” is replaced with its English equivalent (though the picture- language on the sign would have been enough to get the point across). Thankfully, the viewer is spared this interference during the final journey, but the voice reasserts itself for the finale. “Bill forgot that drinking and driving don’t mix. Bill forgot that no one can beat the statistics.” If Rem­ brandt Films has so far been unable to locate a print of the original version, this writer hum­ bly suggests they make an in­ quiry to San Francisco State University. Trnka’s final film, “The Hand”
[.Ruka, 1965; 17m 52s] offers a disquieting look at the signifi­ cance of a creative artist in a to­ talitarian society—showcased with Ionesco-like exaggeration. A happy sculptor busies himself with the creation of a flowerpot— until he’s visited by a giant hand (puppet sculptor, live-action
hand). The hand, unsurprisingly, requests that the sculptor drop his project in favor of a sculpture of... a hand. Friendly persuasion, monetary compensation, pro­ paganda video (!) and physi­ cal threats won’t budge the sculptor, who must be ab­ ducted, caged and transformed into a marionette (a puppet be­ comes a puppet) in order to get him to do the hand’s bidding. The satire and bitter irony of this short were not lost on the Czech­ oslovakian government, and “The Hand” was denied release in its native land. The 1999 documentary short
“Jiri Trnka: Puppet Animation Master” (11m 35s) offers glimpses of the artist at work in his studio, as well as clips from his rare early works: the cel-ani­ mated “Grandpa Planted a Beet,” 1937’s “The Czech Year,” and 1950’s “Prince Bayaya” and “The Good Soldier Schweik.” Trnka’s background as a painter and a writer of children’s books is high­ lighted, and brief but compelling attention is given to his personal conflicts (as a man who resented the restrictiveness of his govern­ ment but simultaneously enjoyed many benefits others were de­ nied). The material is worthwhile, though those who have just watched the rest of the program could probably do without the lengthy clips from “The Merry Circus” and “The Hand.” The packaging of Image’s
DVD reads THE PUPPET FILMS OF JIRI TRNKA, FEATURING THE EMPEROR’S NIGHTINGALE, but THE EMPEROR’S NIGHTINGALE, Trnka’s first fea­ ture production, must be ac­ cessed via a separate menu option and is given twelve chap­ ters of its own, though the film is included in Image’s listed over­ all running time of 156m. Live
action and puppet animation are blended in this adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen short story, which we originally re­ viewed in VW 27:12. A “privi­ leged” little boy is seldom allowed beyond the walls of the manor in which he lives, though he longs to play in the outside world like other children. When the boy comes down with a fever, he is afforded a house call by a sinis­ ter, black-garbed physician who knows everything about medi­ cine, but nothing about human emotion. In his delirium, the boy watches his fancy, expensive toys come to magical life as they en­ act Andersen’s tale of the young emperor of China, who is tempted away from affairs of state (and the stifling “advisors” who control his every move) by the voice of a nightingale. Con­ cerned that they may be losing their grip on the boy monarch, his court moves to distract him with an exquisitely manufactured mechanical songbird. The sub­ terfuge works for a time, but for some things there can be no substitute... Trnka’s toyland reproduction
of a fabled China is as intricate, colorful and compelling as the mechanical bird itself, but the humanity invested in it through his efforts dispels any air of arti­ ficiality. The 1948 production was given a 1951 Stateside re­ lease in a version which featured a narration by Boris Karloff, and it is this version that appears on the disc (albeit with video-gen­ erated credits on both ends). Karloff’s vocal presence is by no means an unnecessary distrac­ tion, such as that imposed on “A Drop Too Much” : certain clari­ fications of the story are help­ ful for younger viewers, while others will enjoy the sarcastic bite the actor provides as he
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